Press Release 
October 28, 2019 | Deutsch

World Health Summit 2019 - Day Two

Uganda’s Minister of Health: We need to strengthen primary healthcare

Berlin, Oct 28, 2019 – Clear calls for partnerships, investments, and innovation in Africa were at the center of the second day of the World Health Summit. The Minister of Health of Uganda, Jane Ruth Aceng, said in her remarks, “For us to achieve universal health coverage, we need to strengthen primary healthcare. Two aspects need to be addressed: infrastructure, which is failing for primary healthcare, as well as strengthening community knowledge and action.”
 
More than half of the world’s population has no access to basic health services. Carissa F. Etienne of the Pan American Health Organization also called on leaders to make universal health coverage a political priority: “Universal means universal. It speaks to all people having this right, all people having access to health services.”
 
Digitalization is playing an increasing role in shaping the healthcare of the future, especially in developing countries. Artificial Intelligence, for example, is becoming more important said Christof von Kalle, Chair for Clinical Translational Sciences at Berlin Institute of Health (BIH). "Good software technologies have the potential to democrotize healthcare, because they can be made available to everyone."
 
The third day of the World Health Summit, Tuesday Oct. 29, will cover topics like the the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Central to the discussion will be the Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-Being for All, which was introduced at the World Health Summit last year and launched in September. A keynote session will report on its development and plans for the future. Speakers include Uganda’s Minister of Health, Gavi CEO Seth Berkley, Wellcome Trust Director Jeremy Farrar, and Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund.
 
An afternoon keynote session will explore health as a political choice, with speakers including WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Brazil’s Minister of Health Luiz Henrique Mandetta.
 
The World Health Summit is one of the world’s leading strategic forums in global health. This year, approximately 20 ministers from around the world, the Director-General of the WHO, top scientists, and leaders from the private sector and civil society are among the participants. For three days, over 2,500 participants from 100 countries will discuss ways to improve global health.
 
Topics in the World Health Summit 2019 program include the impact of climate change on health, improving health systems in Africa and around the world, the fight against antimicrobial resistance, digital health, and implementing the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
 
Speakers at the World Health Summit are leading experts from politics, science, business, and civil society.
 
The World Health Summit was founded in 2009 at Charité and is held under the high patronage of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
 
The World Health Summit is fully open to the press. Interviews with speakers can be coordinated throuth the World Health Summit press office.
 
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World Health Summit
October 27-29, 2019
Kosmos, Karl-Marx-Allee 131a, Berlin
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Press Contact
Katherine Lindemann
communications(at)worldhealthsummit.org